


Eliza

by RagingHomo



Series: To Be a Family [1]
Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Adoption, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Canon Era, Court Sorcerer Merlin (Merlin), Domestic Fluff, Gen, Other, Parenthood
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-13
Updated: 2020-05-13
Packaged: 2021-03-03 05:14:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,045
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24159457
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RagingHomo/pseuds/RagingHomo
Summary: “Well, little princess, do you know what it is I do here?” he asked and received a shake no. “I’m the court sorcerer! And as the court sorcerer it is my job to make sure everyone in this throne room is happy.”“That’s the court jester, Merlin.” Gwaine said.“Shut up, Gwaine.”A young girl is brought to Camelot after her village is raided, leaving her as the sole survivor. Merlin and Arthur do everything they can to try to help the girl, but she refuses to speak, even to tell them her name.
Relationships: Merlin/Arthur Pendragon (Merlin)
Series: To Be a Family [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1743490
Comments: 3
Kudos: 226





	Eliza

When a serving boy ran into Arthur and Merlin’s chambers announcing that there was a ‘situation’, neither of them had expected this. 

They made their way down to the throne room and upon their arrival found a group of knights surrounding a girl who couldn’t have been more than five years old. 

She had fiery red hair and freckles dusted across her face, which was currently filthy aside from the clean streaks that were obviously the result of tears. 

“What the hell happened here?” Arthur asked harshly, making the little girl flinch. He gave an apologetic look and continued, voice softer this time, “Who is this girl and why is she here?” Leon looked at him seriously and beckoned him over to the other side of the room. 

Meanwhile, Merlin approached the young girl and knelt down beside her. “What’s your name, love?” he asked softly but got no reply. 

“She won’t talk,” Percival supplied helpfully. Merlin nodded at him. 

“Well, little princess, do you know what it is I do here?” he asked and received a shake no. “I’m the court sorcerer! And as the court sorcerer it is my job to make sure everyone in this throne room is happy.” 

“That’s the court jester, Merlin.” Gwaine said. 

“Shut up, Gwaine.”

Merlin cupped his hands together and closed his eyes, muttering something in a foriegn language, and when he opened his hands, faery dust in the shape of little gold butterflies started to fly around her. The girl stared at him, eyes wide, before cracking the smallest of smiles. He showed her a couple more tricks, which she seemed to enjoy, before Arthur came back. 

“Merlin, why don’t you go get Guinevere and see what we can do about a bath and some more clothes. It seems that she’ll be staying with us for the time being.” Merlin nodded and extended his hand for the girl to hold as he guided her out of the room. On the way out he heard Elyan muttering something about, ‘a raid on the village… no, we didn’t find any survivors except her” and his heart broke a little. 

Gwen was able to do something about a bath, but the clothes were a bit more of a challenge. Which is how Merlin currently found himself in the marketplace, accompanied by Gwen and the little girl, looking for dresses. 

“How about this one?” He held up a pale yellow dress that looked roughly her size. She scrunched up her face and shook her head violently, earning a laugh from Gwen. 

“Merlin, that’s the ugliest dress I’ve ever seen!” she exclaimed, earning a glare from the lady attending to the stall. “Sorry,” she added, feeling a little ashamed. 

“What about this one?” he asked, this time holding a pink dress. Another head shake. He looked around once more. “Would you like a purple dress like Miss Gwen here?” He said, gesturing towards her dress. The girl nodded eagerly. 

Arthur was not pleased at the amount of money they spent on clothes. 

Over the next few weeks, the girl remained completely silent, though she did take quite a liking to Merlin. She followed him around like a shadow, and soon it became a familiar sight to everyone in the castle. Merlin was brewing potions, the girl was sitting at the work bench watching him intently. Merlin went out to get herbs, the girl was a step behind him with a basket in her hands. The only time the two were apart was after the girl had fallen asleep in one of the chambers they kept open for visiting nobility. 

While she instantly clung onto Merlin, she also quite like Gwen, especially the way she would braid her hair sometimes so that it would look just like hers. 

She was initially afraid of Arthur, cowering in fear whenever he was around or raised his voice, however, she was beginning to warm up to him. She liked watching him while he was signing documents, and he would even give her some parchment and a quill and teach her letters, or just let her scribble. She also liked how he called her ‘Red’ after her vibrant hair color. 

One night, it was storming badly, and the loud thunder was scaring the girl. When Merlin went to leave her room that night after tucking her in, she whimpered.

“Hey, it’s okay,” he reassured her, rushing back to the bed. “Do you need me to stay here?” she nodded. “Do you want to hear a story?” he asked. Another nod. 

“Once upon a time, in a land far, far, away, there was a beautiful Princess. The princess had a perfect life, until, one day, a group of evil bandits came and stole her voice away! The brave princess searched everywhere, but simply couldn’t find it. One day, when looking for her voice in the woods, she stumbled upon a castle. There she met a very stupid but very brave king, and his much smarter, much braver, and dare I say much handsomer warlock friend,” he paused to let her giggle at that, not realizing the ‘stupid but brave’ King leaning in the doorway. 

“She stayed at the castle with them, but still, she couldn’t find her voice. Then the King and the Warlock rode out with their knights to try to find her voice. They ran into the bandits that had stolen it! The King used his sword to defeat the head bandit while the warlock used his magic to take out the rest of the bunch. It was then that her voice was returned to her. With the bandits defeated, they were all free to return to the castle once more, where they lived happily ever after.” 

Merlin looked over to the small girl beside him to find she was nearly asleep. He was about to quietly creep out of the room when he heard a small voice mutter, “Elizabeth… my name… Elizabeth.”

He was smiling like an idiot when he caught Arthur in the doorway. 

“You know Merlin, you really need to work on your storytelling skills,” he said, though his smile matched Merlin’s.

“Is that so?”

“Yes, I could totally take on more bandits than you, even without magic.” 

“Could not.”

“Could too.”


End file.
